It is well known that illumination is required for nearly every medical, dental, surgical or veterinarian procedure as well as in other fields such as automotive repair, aviation, mining and other industrial applications. The most common approach for providing illumination is an overhead lighting system. Although an overhead lighting system provides some illumination for the procedure or other application, these type of systems suffer from multiple limitations. For example, overhead lighting systems must be constantly adjusted to provide for proper illumination of the desired area, which is time-consuming and inefficient. In addition, overhead lighting systems may provide insufficient illumination for surgeries in deeper cavities and anatomical recesses within the body or in situations where the light may be blocked by persons in the surgical area. Overhead lighting systems are also expensive and, thus, costly to repair and replace.
To address the limitations associated with overhead lighting systems, one approach is to incorporate a light source with a particular surgical instrument, such as a retractor. A retractor is an instrument that may be used by an operator for a variety of applications, such as actively separating the edges of a surgical incision or holding back underlying organs or tissues such that body parts under the incision may be accessed. The light source may be an incandescent lamp, halogen lamp or light emitting diode (LED).
An organic light emitting diode (OLED) is typically a monolithic, solid-state device having a series of organic thin films positioned between two thin-film conductive electrodes. When electricity is applied to the OLED, charge carriers (i.e., holes and electrons) are injected from the electrodes into the organic thin films. Under the influence of the electrical field, these carriers migrate through the device until they recombine to form excitons. Once formed, these excitons relax to a lower energy by giving off light and/or heat.
Generally, incorporating a light source with a surgical instrument involves attaching an external light source to the exterior of an existing retractor for providing illumination. For example, an illumination insert may be inserted through a surgical retractor or an illumination element may be mounted on or in a collar body or a surgical retractor pin. In addition, some surgical instruments conduct light into the surgical field by an external light source through a conductive material such as a fiber optic.
Although these devices may address some of the limitations of the overhead lighting system discussed above, they still suffer from significant limitations. Namely, these type of devices can be bulky due to the external light source being attached to the exterior of the surgical instrument, which makes it difficult for the operator to maneuver the device. These devices also have durability concerns as they may be easily damaged as the light source is not protected by a housing or other protective measure. Moreover, these devices do not allow for variable direction of light in the surgical field. Finally, it should be appreciated that a surgical environment requires a completely sterile environment. Since the light source is not self-contained in these devices, sterility is of greater concern with respect to the electronics associated with the light source being exposed.
Accordingly, a need is identified in the field of retractors for addressing and overcoming the foregoing limitations. Specifically, it is desirable to incorporate a light source in the form of an OLED directly into the retractor, such that it is a completely self-contained unit as well as being flexible and malleable. The OLED may be coupled with polarized light panels, which provide certain advantages over previously utilized light sources, such as providing optimal illumination for a variety of desired lighting conditions. The resulting retractor would aid in providing illumination in anatomical recesses and orifice surgery where previous light sources and external lighting systems were limited as well as lowering costs compared with current lighting systems.